The rest of the night went smoothly, though dinner was strange. Taiysho sat at the head of he table, Izaiyo to his left, Sesshomaru on his right, And Inuyasha next to him. Kagome being the guest of honor sat next to Izaiyo. Seeing Sesshomaru every time she looked at Inuyasha didn't feel right. She already felt as if she betray Inuyasha by the moment she had with his older brother.
When Inuyasha would make eye contact she would try her best to smile, but it was beginning to drain her. After dinner they all went back to the 'Ball room' and danced to a few more songs until Taiysho had a new announcement. "Again I would like to thank all of you for coming out tonight. But there is one more thing I would like to do before tonight is over." He took Kagome's hand and pulled her to him. "I would like to welcome Kagome to the family." She suddenly felt hot under every ones eyes. Her chest tightened and her body had a slight shake to it. "I believe Inuyasha has something for you." Kagome looked in front of her where the crowed began to part to let him through. A shiver ran through her when he came into view. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a necklace with a silver crescent moon pendant.
"What is this?" She touched the charm with her shaking hand.
"Welcome to the family." Taiysho smiled. After the applause and a few more words every one began to trickle out. Inuyasha left her side to speak to a few people before they left but promised Kagome he would be back to walk her home.
"Sesshomaru, what is this?" Kagome finally worked up the courage after minutes of contemplating on if she should talk to him.
"I have to ask you to never take that off." He wouldn't look at her as he spoke. How dare he. Putting her in an awkward situation and then had the nerve to treat her like she wasn't there!
She touched the charm, "But why?"
"Just don't." He finished quickly. She could feel her blood pressure rising with anger and her heart tried pounding out of her chest to the point it hurt.
"Hey Kagome." Inuyasha put his arms around her waist before she could loose her temper.
"Inuyasha-" When she spoke her breaths felt short. She took a deep breath to calm down and scolded herself for getting this worked up over nothing.
"It seems every one is going home, perhaps you and Kagome should do the same." Sesshomaru interrupted.
"Good idea." He turned her in the direction of the door. Kagome looked at Sesshomaru one last time before following Inuyasha.
"So how did you like it?" Inuyasha asked. "Kagome?"
"It was fun."
"Are you okay? You seem out of it."
"I'm fine, just a little tired." Since being outside her body had returned to normal for the most part. Only the pain in her chest remained.
"Well, I would come in but I have to go I have work tomorrow."
"What?" Kagome was in such a daze she didn't notice they were at her door. "Right, I'm not feeling well any way." There was a moment of silence before Inuyasha did anything.
While Kagome was trying to figure out what to say, Inuyasha pulled her into an embarrasses. "Kagome," He sighed.
"What is it Inuyasha." Something about that moment sent her body into over drive again. Her intuition was telling her to run, get inside and just go to bed. But her body wouldn't move aside from trembling, every part of her body was just getting heavy.
"I was going to wait to tell you," He moved his mouth closer to hers, "but I don't want to," He presses is lips to hers as she froze. Sesshomaru flashed through her mind, and instead of the usual butterflies she gets when Inuyasha kissed her, this time it felt like a ton of bricks crashing down. "I love you." His words were faint to her but she was almost positive that was what he said before her world went black.
Some one was calling her name, it was faint but she could hear them. She wasn't sure but it felt like they were also shaking her. She asked her self if she was asleep. "Kagome, Kagome." Whispers of her name echoed around her head, memories of Inuyasha became clearer to her the louder the voice got. Her eyes' opened to gold rings staring at her.
"Inuyasha?"
"No." When her vision cleared she saw Sesshomaru.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well I came to get Inuyasha, I figured he would have stayed but I guess I was wrong. But when I got here you were crying."
"Inuyasha?" She gasped. Suddenly fully comprehending what happened.
"You were talking in your sleep." Kagome was quiet. "Were you talking with Inuyasha?"
Kagome winced at Sesshomaru. "If you're trying to ask if I was dreaming about him, then-" Kagome sighed wondering if that was a dream. "yes, and no." she said with less of an attitude. Sesshomaru gave her a questioning look. "How can you act like nothing happened?" he said nothing. "An answer would be nice." Kagome brought her self to her feet when he turned from her. She grabbed his sleeve and turned him to her "Sessho-" She stopped mid sentence and began to breath heavily. Her grip on his arm tightened. She knew this feeling, it was the same thing that happened last night
"Kagome?" He took her shoulders. A dazed Kagome looked up into his eyes' like she was looking for something. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine, just a little lighted headed." She huffed.
"Come on, we-" Kagome's eyes' rolled and he saw nothing but white as she fell into his arms. "Kagome!" He picked her up and ran to his car. As careful as he could and as fast as he could he put her in the passengers seat and got in. He wasn't what someone could call a safe driver. He weaved in and out of cars, and went way over the speed limit, but as long as he got her to the hospital he didn't care. For a short while she had calmed down, her breathing slowed, her trembling, moving and moaning had stopped. She seemed as if she were only sleeping. With one hand driving and the there changing gears there was not much he could do to comfort her. Her moaning began to come back as she started to shake, and turn her head side to side. Sesshomaru's attention was drawn to his hand when Kagome grabbed it. He looked from his hand to her, here eye's were still closed, and sweat was dripping from her forehead.
"My chest..." She gripped his hand tighter.
"Kagome, Kagome wake up!" She began to shift a bit more in her seat. "Don't fall asleep Kagome, stay awake." He looked between her, his hand and the road. "Come on Kagome, be strong!" She opened her eyes' and smiled. "How can you smile, aren't you in pain?"
"Hurts like hell." She let out a weak laugh. "I feel like I could die."
"Don't talk." Sesshomaru turned his concentration to the road.
When they arrived at the hospital Sesshomaru did some illegal parking but if his car got towed he could pay. Kagome reached to open the door, but he leaned across and grabbed her wrist. "You wait." He demanded. He ran around to he other side and took her out of the car and ran inside. He couldn't help but notice how cold she was, and her face was pale and purple under her eyes. He had remember seeing her like this before, just not as sever. He went to the lady at the desk and told her what happened.
"Does she have insurance?"
"What do you mean does she have insurance?" He raised his voice.
"I'm sorry sir, she has to have insurance." He sat Kagome down on a near by chair and went back to the lady and whispered a few words. "Right this way sir." He pick up Kagome and followed.
"What did you say?" She laughed.
"Nothing you need to worry about." Even in her condition she would think of a few things. The nurse showed them a room and called a doctor to come in. Sesshomaru laid her on the bed and stepped back when one of the nurses pushed him out of the way. He watched them hook her up to different machines and stick her with needles.
"We are going to have to ask you to leave for the moment." He was about to disagree, but did not want to cause any stress on Kagome and did what was asked of him.
3 hours later
After the doctor made it in a went to Kagome he went back to Sesshomaru "Are you immediate family?"
"No, I- I'm her brother in law. What is wrong with her?"
"I can only tell immediate family, Husband, brother, sister, mom, or dad. Any of them available?"
"Her mom and dad are dead, and her brother is only eight. I am the one paying for this."
"She has no insurance?"
"Why does every one keep asking that?"
"Hm, very well. Has she been stressed lately?" The doctor inquired.
"Not that I know of."
"Well she has a heart condition, that has either gone too long undetected, or the only way it would be this bad in a short amount of time is if she has been under a great deal of stress."
Sesshomaru looked at his tag. "So Dr. Suikotsu, what can we do to fix it?"
"I will have to run some test to see what the exact problem is. I can work out the solution once I have the answer."
"So she could die?"
"At the moment I am going to have to say there is a high possibility she could have complications that would lead to death." Suikostu could tell what he wanted by the look in his eyes' "You may see her if you wish, but I ask you not to discuses this with her, we don't need her going into a state of panic." Sesshomaru nodded
As he entered the room all he heard was the insistent beeping of the heart rate machine and her slow breathing. He pulled a chair up next to the bed and rested his elbows on his lap and watched her. He thought about what the doctor had said about stress and all the situations she has been in since meeting him. The alley, her brother, her father and not to mention last night. He didn't even stop and think of the affect it would have on her, being in a room full of people loyal to his father so by default would have been ready to kill her. Could she really have been hiding her condition all this time? She did it so well. She even found time to fix the garden.
"I'm cold." Sesshomaru shook his head and brought his attention to the quivering voice.
"Hold on." He went to a closet on the other side of the room and took a blanket from the top, and laid it over her.
"Thank you." She watched him as he walked back to his seat not even acknowledging her. He wanted to know what had been wrong, he wanted to see if she had been stress lately and if so then what caused it. Suikotsu asked him not to, but he did not know what to say, or how to say it without outright asking. Kagome looked him in the eyes' as he sat. He looked…lost. "Sesshomaru?" He looked up at her still not knowing what to say. He knew a simple 'yes' would do but he could not even say that. "Did you call Inuyasha?" He shook his head and pulled his phone out of his pocket and began to dial the number, but she put her hand on the phone. "Good, I was hoping you didn't." She saw a 'What do you mean look' "I could use this time away from him to think." Kagome with drew her hand and diverted her eyes' "It would probably be best to stay away from both of you for awhile." He sat for a moment to process what she said and found that he agreed. So he was standing to leave. "But let's start that tomorrow, I don't think I'm ready to be alone yet. I don't even know what's wrong with me." Tears swelled up in her eyes'. She could barley speak, nor could she look at him. She felt weak, she didn't like feeling this way. Sesshomaru took in a deep breath and went to the widow.
"When I took your deal, this was not how you said you would die."
"I know."
"This morning, I thought if I didn't talk about it we could leave it behind us." When he faced her, she saw something she had not realized wasn't there for awhile. His face was cold and emotionless.
"Sesshomaru I'm still going to keep my promise."
"Then Inuyasha should be here with you."
"You know what he said, I can 't see him right now. I don't know what I would say."
"I have nothing to say." Kagome could hear the change in his voice, it was even colder than when she first met him. "I'll see you when you come back."
"Wait!" She tried to stop him, but he still left. Tears constantly flowed down her cheeks until she cried herself to sleep.
Sesshomaru went on for weeks not seeing Kagome, just as he promised. When he received the call for her to come home he contemplated on sending Inuyasha or even Izaiyo to pick her up. Sitting at his desk wondering what his next move would be in finding her father his phone rang. "Sesshomaru, we have an emergency and need you down at the hospital."
"Who is this?"
"Dr Suikotsu."
"Very well." His only thought was that she had died, and now he was left with what to do with her little brother.
"Sesshomaru you're here." Dr. Suikotsu ran to him.
"The emergency?"
"Well she definitely needs surgery. One of her main arteries is collapsing pretty bad, but even if we correct that with surgery she has symptoms of heart failure."
After taking a moment to process what was said he repeated himself. "The emergency?" Dr. Suikotsu gave him a note.
You really should watch over your hostages more closely. Especially this one.
If you want her back, then I suggest you do as I say.
If you cooperate she will stay out of harms way.
If not, well I get to have some fun with her.
An Old friend
Sesshomaru crumbled the note and his eyes' flashed red. "This was found with it." Suikotsu handed over a phone, Kagome's phone.
"Damn him." As soon as the phone was put in his hands, it rang. "What do you want?" He answered it.
"Oh Sesshomaru, why so sour? I thought you would have loved to hear from me." The man on the other end mocked.
"I'll find you. No one blackmails me."
"I wouldn't call it blackmail. Just using you to get what I want." The voice laughed. "I think some one wants to talk to you." Sesshoamru could hear Kagome in the background yelling for help. "So, do I have your cooperation?"
Sesshomaru laughed for a moment. "Tell me, why did you go through the trouble of taking her when you could have come strait to me?"
"I figured you would need some convincing."
"So you took a sick girl from the hospital? Sounds desperate."
"Oh Sesshomaru, I give you credit. You are a good bluff, but not good enough." The voice laughed hanging up.
Sesshomaru was very close to losing his temper on the doctor. "Why was there no one watching?"
"We have never had some one taken before."
He decided to leave it at that. Standing here questioning a doctor wouldn't do any good. So after giving it much thought he called the one person that could help "Inuyasha, do you have access to a tracking devise?"
"Yeah, but why would you need one of those?"
"Just bring me one." He figure this would not be a proper time to tell him about Kagome.
"Did you find more information?"
"Just bring it!"
"Sure but might be a few days, they will be taking inventory and if one is gone well, it won't be good."
He could not believe he had to ask for help from his younger brother. If any one should get her back that should be Inuyasha's job, not his. That's what he kept telling him self. In his agitated state he picked up the phone to make one other call he would regret.
"Izaiyo…"